


Never Left This Town

by ishouldbeworkingrightnow (notjustalittlegirl)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Jealousy, Light Angst, Rated for mentions of underage smoking, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 07:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9873221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustalittlegirl/pseuds/ishouldbeworkingrightnow
Summary: Katsuki Mari tries so hard not to resent her little brother.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story is pretty much what would be going through my head if my little brother's life left me trapped.  
> I wrote this in about an hour, and it is my first work for the YoI fandom, so be nice to me. I do not own Yuri on Ice, and I am making no money from this. If you or someone you know have written something similar to this, then I promise I'm not trying to copy you, and I am making no money off of this, it is purely for entertainment. This work is unbeta'd, and all mistakes are mine.  
> Title is from the song Always Gold by Radical Face.

Making the beds at Yu-Topia, folding sheets and cleaning rooms, day in and day out. Whenever someone clogged the bath, or made the toilet overflow, or got locked out of their room, fixing things, helping the idiots who locked their keys in their rooms.

That had never been the life which Katsuki Mari had envisioned for herself. Being a glorified maid at the hotel where she had spent her entire life. For the longest time, Mari had pictured herself- beautiful and stylish, with a good job, maybe even a husband and children- living in a nice house with a nice job that _wasn't_ the one she had done since she turned sixteen and needed money to pay for the growing habit of smoking the cigarettes which she paid her older friend to buy for her. Maybe she would even leave Japan and spending some time in Europe, or even America.

She hadn't wanted to live with her parents until she was thirty, with no life beyond the borders of the small town of Hasetsu and the walls of her family's inn. 

But then her brother Yuuri, seven years younger and with an angelic sweetness that endeared him to almost everyone he met, had started winning local skating competitions and moving on to bigger and bigger meets, and Mari had come down from her dreamy cloud. Her baby brother was talented, there was no denying that, and Mari felt the twinge of guilt in her chest every time she wished in the darkest part of her heart that he wasn't.

Yuuri had a beautiful little dream, so of course it was Mari who had to stay home in Hasetsu and keep the last hot springs inn running as one of her parents' only employees. Her family needed the money to support Yuuri's skating career- coaching fees, airplane tickets, and all the rest of the expenses which came with being an international figure skater. So, by extension, they needed their daughter more than they had since Yuuri was a baby, and her mother had needed help balancing the inn and the newborn Yuuri.

Resenting Yuuri became a constant part of Mari's life. So did the regret that she could ever wish Yuuri's skating career would end quickly so that he could just come home and set her free. That was no way for a good sister to think. She tried to never take it out on Yuuri, but sometimes she would slip up.

She tried to convince herself not to be angry at her little brother. It wasn't the fault of the sweet little boy, who had grown up into the anxious and shy man who worried constantly about making his country and family proud. It wasn't Yuuri's fault that he was talented, but that didn't stop her from being angry at her brother whenever she threw another load of sheets into the laundry or pulled a clump of hair out of a bathtub drain.

But, when she watched the Grand Prix final on TV with all her family's friends and inn guests, the day after her Yuuri's beloved Vicchan died, and saw her brother fall again and again in front of the whole world, the resentment began to ebb from Mari's heart. By the time she saw Yuuri being held by the coach that her family's money paid for, head in his arms and exhibiting the signs that only someone who had grown up beside him, taking care of him and playing with him, would know meant that he was about to start crying, the resentment was completely gone.

And when Yuuri arrived home, escorted by Minako, Mari couldn't bring herself to greet him at the door. Instead, when she found him sitting in his room beside a photo of poor Vicchan, she knew that it didn't really matter if she was stuck in Yu-Topia for the rest of her life, so long as her little brother didn't give up on the dream he'd been pouring his soul into since he was a toddler. 

"You know, if you want to keep skating, I'll support you."

Mari didn't plan it, but she didn't resist the urge to walk forward and wrap her arms around Yuuri, giving him a kiss in his hair like she used to when she was seven and little Yuuri only a newborn. He hugged her back instantly, wrapped up in the silent comfort of the sister he hadn't seen in the five years since he'd last been in Hasetsu. 

"Thanks, Mari."

She smiled, gave him a squeeze, let go of her brother and left the room to get a pillow and sheets for his old bedroom. There was nothing in the world that would change the fact that he was still her baby brother, and that she would never stop supporting him. No matter what it took. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Merci beaucoup for reading! Comments/kudos always appreciated.  
> I really want to see more of Mari in the next season of YoI.


End file.
